Worries are not over for staff at employee-owned John Lewis

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Waitrose appeared to fare better than John Lewis. The upmarket grocery chain welcomed a record number of customers as sales leapt by 5% to £7.7 billion, with its performance recovering in the second half following a first half beset by inflation and low consumer confidence.

John Lewis department stores, on the other hand, saw sales decline by 4% to £4.8bn, as growth in fashion was offset by weaker sales in home and technology, although the division did see profits improve thanks to better margins and productivity.

Looking ahead, the company announced plans to ramp up investment across the group as it looks grow profits further this year. In the pipeline are further store openings and refurbishments for Waitrose and investment in technology for John Lewis to improve its online experience for customers.

However, while such developments may be seen as positive for customers, further difficulty lies in store for John Lewis staff. After the company confirmed in January that it would be making an unspecified number of redundancies over the next five years, new chief executive Nish Kankiwala said today that a “few hundred” roles were axed last year and a “similar magnitude” of cuts could be expected this year.

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Along with confirmation that partners would not be paid a bonus for 2023/24, staff at the John Lewis Partnership could be forgiven approaching the year ahead with some trepidation about what might lie ahead.